Blurr and the Polar Bear
Wreck of the Dark Comet S-10 The twisted wreckage of blackened spacecraft, alien to this alien world, stabs into the crystalline sky, the jagged remains of the hull like clawed fingers against the horizon. The black ice is thin here, and newer than the ruined ship. It's not yet overtaken the area completely, and the wound that the ship had gouged upon landing still clearly shows sharp-edged gray rocks disturbed beneath the thin layer of frigid dark soil. The wreckage itself, where re-entry and time hasn't blasted it black, is a somewhat dullish purple, marred on one of the hulls by a more livid shade of the same color, the stylized symbol of a knife-edged face glaring angrily at the world whose gravity dared touch it. A search of the wreckage shows neither survivor nor body, though every now in again the emotionless voice of the computer can be heard making course-adjustment recommendations that come too late for its missing crew. At least, that's what it's saying when it's speaking Cybertronian. What is being said when it slips into a second, less familiar language is anyone's guess. Contents: Jetfire Mechanical Wyvern Darkwing Blue Hovercar Obvious exits: North leads to Nameless Town. North East leads to Lake of Sorrow. South leads to Ice Caves. Then... Bar Moon, and Blurr is sitting at one of the side tables, drinking rather more than usual. Sure, he's spent a fair amount of time learning how to be useful without his speed, but he's still so far beneath what he once was that he can't help a bit of depression. He's heard that some people deal with depression with excessive drinking, so Blurr's decided to give that a try to see how well it worked. So far, all he's figured out is that one thing he did /faster/ than he used to was get drunk. A stranger in a long cloak and a wide-brimmed had that hides his face approaches the table and looks down. "Room temperature super-conductors," the stranger states calmly, the way someone else might say, "Hello.". Blurr's head lifts his head, optics wide. "What did you say?!" he asks, so shocked that he sputters it out almost as quickly as he would have normally. "Room temperature super-conductors. You need them. I know where to find them. But the information will cost you." "But but but... I only have a few shanix on me!" Blurr protests. There's a glint of teeth that might be a smile or a snarl in the darkness beneath the hat. "Well, then. I'll just have to collect at a later date." He sets a datastick down at the table and turns to leave without another word. Blurr frowns at the datastick, tilting his head this way and that, then finally pulls out a datapad and inserts it. "... Alkor Zephyr?" he asks uncertainly. Now... Blurr zooms over the ice and snow as a hovercar, heading towards the location on the map. By now, he's had time to alert others, give explanations, and get help on this quest (he's no pilot and no spacer, so he'd need help with that much at least, and besides, Command would be rather annoyed if he ran off without telling them), and though he no longer babbles at high speed, he still babbles whlie he drives. "It seems like a trap. I mean, it's probably a trap. Why would someone /do/ something like that? But I had to look into it. I /had/ to! Anyway, thank you for coming, because if it is a trap, I need help, and even if it isn't a trap, I still need help!" The situation's bad enough as it is, but it might be even worse if a Decepticon or Decepticon agent overheard him at the bar, or followed the ship to the planet! Who needs a pilot when you have the biggest nerd on Cybertron, who happens to have a perfectly capable and sizable spacefaring vehicle mode, at your call? To be honest, Jetfire still feels bad about not being able to just fix Blurr himself, so despite the TRAP potential staring them in the faces, agreed to taking the Autobots where they needed to go. Besides, he's likely got to figure out if what they find is actually usable for what they need it to do. "Some traps just need to be sprung to figure out why they're there in the first place." Jetfire replies as he cruises by overhead, wings spread fully and engines on a low burn that somehow defies physics by allowing him to stay aloft and yet only go as fast as the vehicles driving below him. He did it in the show too, so there! "Besides, science is all about taking risks to find answers. Otherwise we'd never learn anything." Needless to say, he darn well expects it to be a trap as well. But that's why he came prepared should it actually be truth in the hunch. Mechanical Wyvern is bored. What with the truce, there's been little for the Terrorcon to do. Shredding snow autobot images was mildly satisfying, but nowhere near as exciting as taking apart the real thing. Then he hears something. A certain motormouthed Autobot? He cocks his crested head and moves to follow Blurr. Panavia Tornado GR1 Fighter Jet being a regular bar fly, indeed overheard the conversation. Making others miserable is one of the things that brought him any joy in thise bleak miserable universe of ours, so of course the Powermaster wasn't about to let Blurr get his hands on something what would cheer him up. Besides the universe would be a much better place with Blurr being slow and depressed rather then fast and annoying. Cybertruck agrees with Jetfire, "Rolling straight into a trap is sometimes the last thing the trap-maker ever expects. Funny, though, that some random alien would know about yer lil' problem, but I guess you've been out enough in public. Hmm..." He rolls along after Blurr, still slower, but no longer slower by nine orders of magnitude. Kup's decent at off-roading, though. Blue Hovercar continues blithly, suspecting danger ahead but unaware of the danger behind! "Yeah, and the fights were televised and videoized and Youtubed and all the other usual transmissions, so by now it's no real secret and- gosh, that ship's creepy, but that's not what we're here for. But the ice caves are a little further on, and that's where the datastick said that we could find the stuff, so..." he pulls up towards what amounts to little more than an icy hole in the ground and transforms, frowning. "I'm not sure I like the look of this!" Blurr transforms at a depressingly average speed into robot mode. ".. Wonder what Decepticons were doing that they crashed out here?" Jetfire muses, noticing the sharp pronged half rusted insigna on the hull. But in circling past the wreck once he sees no signs of life, and instead drops down towards the other Autobots. Once he's slowed to landing speed he transforms, hitting the icy ground with a crunch beneath his large feet and skidding a bit before stopping and standing up fully. "Cheerful place. More snow, wonderful." Veritech Spacefighter transforms into his Jetfire mode. Cybertruck transforms, too, and he draws his trusty musket, just in case, going on, "Yeah, sure, they saw ya going slow, but it ain't like you got a sticker saying 'my power chip rectifier's broke' slapped on your bumper, y'know?" He looks around at all the snow, and he remarks, "I went to a planet once where every word in their language was a word for snow." The pickup truck rises up into the old veteran Autobot, Kup. "Awk, no want fast bot be fast again! Then him be too hard catch!" the Wyvern squawks, "Us no let him!" The Terrorcon continues on. "That would make talking difficult, wouldn't it? 'Snow snow snow snow snow. Snow snow snow.' Just doesn't seem to work!" Blurr observes before he takes a deep breath. "Well... here goes nothing. I guess." And then he heads down into the tunnel. Only a few steps in, he starts to slip, but quickly recovers his balance. "Yikes! Kind of slick!" he observes as he continues his way down. Blurr moves south to the Ice Caves. Blurr has left. You follow Blurr. You move south to the Ice Caves. Ice Caves' In the south is a region of volcanic tunnels invaded and widened by ice, where dirty white twists around gray and black stone to produce a strange, marbling effect in caves that twist and branch and turn out and in on themselves. Between the abnormal magnetics of the world, the occasional rumbling of the underground caves, and the curves and curls that seem to test the boundary of sanity, it's nigh impossible to keep one's sense of direction straight down here. The only consistent "landmarks" are the occasional cavern, some unimaginably vast, and those only last until the next time the rumble of geological instability changes the pathways, brings down a ceiling, or reveals something new. It's not just the marble-ice paths themselves that twist about strangely, however, for sound itself echoes in unexpected ways. Things ahead sound like they are behind, things behind sound like they are above, and... surely that last rumble was just another smallplanet-quake? Because the size an actual object would have to be to make a noise like that... and what's with all that slithering? Contents: Blurr Obvious exits: North leads to Wreck of the Dark Comet S-10. Cutthroat arrives from the Wreck of the Dark Comet S-10 to the north. Cutthroat has arrived. Darkwing arrives from the Wreck of the Dark Comet S-10 to the north. Darkwing has arrived. Panavia Tornado GR1 Fighter Jet says, "A snowy barren wasteland, a perfect place for a trio of Autobots to get lost in permentantly... That scientist might even feel right at home here." He chuckles darkly. "Its just too bad that slagging treatie is in place, so I can't engange them directly... Noticing them entering a set of ice caves however, gives the gloomjet an idea. He opens fire at at the top of ice to cuase an avalanche once the Autobots are directly underneith. Nothing wrong with a little terget pratcies on a barren world, its not his fualt if some idiots are trapped..." Letfire arrives from the Wreck of the Dark Comet S-10 to the north. Jetfire has arrived. Jetfire steps just had enough that the edges of his toes and heels into the ice that they dig some and get traction, to keep from slipping like Blurr almost did. "I'm amused no one is complaining about it being ice instead of fire, which is a common misconception about comets. The aura one sees as they move through space is actually not fire at all, but gaseous vapors and ice crystals that are shed from its body to form the corona around i--" Jetfire's science lesson is interrupted as he stops and looks up at the vage rumbling noises above them. "Did anyone else hear something just now?" Kup explains, "Well, there was snow-that-is-me, which was different from snow-that-is-mine, and then there's snow-that-is-you, but yeah, that language was a heck of a pain, 'specially if you got your tongue stuck to an icicle, yetch!" Then, Kup goes still, and there's an 'oh slag' look on his face. Blurr is eager enough that he's moving ahead of the others. He pauses as Jetfire asks his question and turns back to Jetfire, shrugging. "I maybe heard some rumbling, but I heard some rumbling earlier, too. This place just seems prone to lots and lots of rumbling! Why, what did you hear?" Darkwing successfully triggers an avalanche, blocking the exit! However, even the quickest aerial review will show that that's not the only tunnel in the area - there are several more. The Autobots may well have another way out! Mechanical Wyvern claps his wings together as Darkwing collapses the tunnel. "That slow them down!" he says, as he pursues the not-as-fast-as-he-used-to-be Autobot. "Him no get speed back!" Panavia Tornado GR1 Fighter Jet says, "Yes, but Autobots are as lucky as they are stupid. We need to make sure they are either never seen again, or never find what they came here for." The Powermaster veers away from the burried exit to look for other ways to deal with the autobots without breaking the treaty." Jetfire has been buried in snow too many times that he'd like to remember as it is!.. Though the tunnel seems to be holding up so he relaxes for the moment. Relatively speaking. "Let's keep going and find our target first. We can worry about digging ourselves out if need be later. I brought one of the plasma turrets if we need the fire power." He chuckles a little as his bad joke. "Not that all plasma is fire, but fire is a type of plasma." Kup groans over Jetfire's bad joke. "Eeesh, can't you science yourself a better sense of humour? Wouldn't be the first time I've been snowed in. Once, it was so blasted cold, my metal started to fracture, so I had to hole up inside a dead yeti to keep warm." "Dammit Kup, I'm a scientist, not a comedian," Jetfire retorts, paraphrasing one of the lines he's heard from the Junkions. Blurr eyes Jetfire warily at the 'joke.' "Uhm. Okay," he answers as he continues down. The group enter into a large cavern with many exits, tunnels that branch throughout the area (some of which lead back to the surface). He groans at Kup's joke, just as there's another rumbling in the area. This sends giant ice cicles falling down from the ceiling towards the Autobots... Look out! Combat: Blurr compares his Agility to 60: Failure :( Combat: Jetfire compares his Agility to 60: Failure :( Blurr is pinned down by a giant icicle! Combat: Mechanical Wyvern compares his Agility to 60: Success! Mechanical Wyvern follows the Autobots into the tunnels. As icicles come down, he snaps at them, shattering them like glass. He uses his antigravs so that he can more easily maneuver. "Them no get away!" Jetfire may be agile, but he just doesn't have a lot of room to -use- it in the ice tunnel's confides due to his size. He's pretty much just standing through the shakes, until an extra large chunk hits him in the back hard enough to put the air guardian on his knees for a moment. "First combat ski resorts, now this!" Combat: Kup compares his Agility to 60: Failure :( Kup is slammed down to the ground by a huge sheet of ice, which shatters, and then multiple icicles pin him. "Gah! Well, least they ain't exploding icicles." Panavia Tornado GR1 Fighter Jet follows through the tunnels as well, like before he fires on the the enviroment, trying to bring down more of ceiling on to of the helpless autobots. Blurr is, as mentioned, pinned down by one of the giant icicles. This should make it easy for Cutthroat to catch up! His first instinct is to flail, but he doesn't /actually/ flail, keeping that reaction in check (for once). He does push at the giant chunk of ice, however, trying to get it off of him. "Guys, I think I'm stuck," he protests. Then someone attacks the ceiling, and Blurr's optics widen. "Wait, what's that?!" Down one of the side tunnels, a sort of 'wuffling' noise can be heard. Combat: Mechanical Wyvern compares his Agility to 60: Failure :( Jetfire shoves the icicle off his back, but then has to duck and cover his head as more shots?! try and make the ceiling collapse farther. "Well you were expecting a trap!" he retorts. Shame with all the ice falling and the noise it causes shattering he doesn't hear anything else. Mechanical Wyvern gets piled on with some suddenly-detactched ice and snow. He flails, flapping his wings and squawking in protest. "No sposed to dump ice on ME!" he says to Darkwing. He breathes a blast of fire to melt the ice and snow so he can get going. "Then you shouldn't be getting in my way, Primative. Besides your perfectly capable of handling a bit of ice and snow." The Aerospace XO retorts as he continues through the tunnel, keeping himself towards the back to avoid any noticed unlike Cutthroat who continues to charge ahead. Blurr starts to try to dig his way out. "Someone else is down here," he protests. "I heard someone say something, but I could have sworn they said 'primative' and I'm not primative! Maybe they're locals?" Meanwhile, the whuffling noise gets louder. Combat: Blurr compares his Strength to 50: Failure :( Blurr remains stuck. :( Combat: Jetfire compares his Strength to 50: Success! Combat: Mechanical Wyvern compares his Strength to 50: Success! Combat: Kup compares his Strength to 50: Success! Mechanical Wyvern gets all the snow and ice off himself and continues his pursuit. He squawks at Darkwing. "Stay out my way!" he retorts. As the tunnel continues, the Terrorcon starts to wonder when they're going to hit a dead-end. Kup yanks himself up, and the icicles that had him pinned shatter in a most satisfactory fashion. He dusts himself off and then turns to Blurr, trying to work on freeing him, too. "Could be locals. Could be yer mysterious 'benefactor'. Could be anything, kid. Stay sharp." Jetfire manages to shove the ice chunks off once they stop falling so much. "Let's not be around to find out who, preferably." He stops to pull one out of his shoulder, and toss it aside. Kup is already digging Blurr out, so he starts moving forward again, taking up the 'guardian' portion of his Function without a second thought. His rifle appears in his hands, though hopefully it's a 'just in case'. "... I wish Steeljaw or Foxfire was here. They'd be able to tell if the noise was behind or in front of us," he grumbles to no one in particular. Remember that wuffling noise? As Blurr is still trying to get himself unstuck with Kup's help, a large white creature comes barreling down one of the tunnels, growling furiously at the intruders! It passes the Decepticons on the way, taking angry swipes at them as it moves past them before bursting into the ice cavern proper, where it leaps at the Autobots and tears into them in a frenzy! Blurr drops Demon Polar Bear. Combat: Blurr misses Panavia Tornado GR1 Fighter Jet with Demon Polar Bear's Polar Claw Area attack! Combat: Blurr misses Mechanical Wyvern with Demon Polar Bear's Polar Claw Area attack! Combat: Blurr misses Kup with Demon Polar Bear's Polar Claw Area attack! Combat: Blurr (Blurr) used "Polar Claw": A Level 3 AREA-MELEE attack. Combat: Blurr misses himself with Demon Polar Bear's Polar Claw Area attack! Combat: Blurr strikes Jetfire with Demon Polar Bear's Polar Claw Area attack! Demon Polar Bear [ TACS Object: Demon Polar Bear ] A thing so blazing white that, even surrounded by the ice and snow, it's hard to look at, despite not generating any light of its own. It's as if the optics simply don't want to process that level of purity. Looking despite the pain reveals more details - blazing red eyes, saber-length teeth and claws, large mouth opened wide in a roar or pulled back in a growling snarl. Something about it is distinctly bear-like, but more like a bear that never belonged in this universe. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This is a weapon object, see '+help WeaponObject' for more info ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Usage Restriction: OWNER (Blurr) Can You Use It?: No [ TACS Weapon Object #10096 ] Jetfire wheels around as he hears the sound of -something- coming down the tunnel. "Look out!" He shouts as he steps -over- the two smaller Autobots, and gets in front of them just as the demonic ursine comes into view to intercept it. As such he takes the blunt of its charge and goes skidding backwards on the icy surface as the thing, as big as he is, digs into his armor with its claws. He hisses as something sparks, but then attempts to push back with the grapple and fling the beast back into the wall of the tunnel. A Polar Bear draws near! Cutthroat pysches himself up! The Polar bear attacks Cutthroat with Claws! *miss* Cutthroat attacks with Slicing Fury! Combat: Mechanical Wyvern strikes Demon Polar Bear with his Slicing Fury! (Kick) attack! Combat: Jetfire strikes Demon Polar Bear with his Bear Tossing (Kick) attack! Panavia Tornado GR1 Fighter Jet barrel rolls to avoid being hit, as the large monsters makes it way past. Oh this was just too good. If he was careful enough he could easily attack the Autobots and claim that he missed becuase they were too close to the monster... He flies out of the tunnel and stays near the top of the cavern as he switches from using his regular lasers to his favored Electro-Kinetic Blasters. He opens fire on the first Autobot he sees near the beast. Combat: Panavia Tornado GR1 Fighter Jet misses Jetfire with his Electro-Kinetic Blasters attack! Combat: Blurr compares his Strength to 50: Success! Blurr, using Kup's help, finally gets out from beneath the icicle, and just in time, because the giant demon bear is continuing its rampage! It throws back its head and roars as Cutthroat strikes it, a red welt of blood spreading across that pure white, while it's flung against the fall wall. It recovers almost instantly, however, and rushes forward, snarling. Darkwing may have struck at Jetfire, but that doesn't stop it from going after everyone in the room. Combat: Blurr strikes Kup with Demon Polar Bear's Polar Claw Area attack! Combat: Blurr (Blurr) used "Polar Claw": A Level 3 AREA-MELEE attack. Combat: You took 11 damage. Combat: Blurr's attack has slightly corrupted your Firepower systems! Combat: That attack has temporarily affected Kup's Accuracy. (Blinded) Combat: Blurr strikes Panavia Tornado GR1 Fighter Jet with Demon Polar Bear's Polar Claw Area attack! Combat: That attack has temporarily impaired Panavia Tornado GR1 Fighter Jet 's Agility. (Crippled) Combat: Blurr misses Jetfire with Demon Polar Bear's Polar Claw Area attack! Combat: Blurr strikes Mechanical Wyvern with Demon Polar Bear's Polar Claw Area attack! Combat: Blurr misses himself with Demon Polar Bear's Polar Claw Area attack! Jetfire unfortunately has to move out of the way when Darkwing 'accidentally' shoots near him, giving the charging angry bear room to reach after the other Autobots. Cussing a bit as his evasive tactics forced him to leave others open, Jetfire immeadiately turns back to the beast as he goes on the offensive and pulls something out of his subspace storage. "Good thing I came prepared for hostilities." With a sidearm snap he pitchs the capsule towards the demonic bear, where it hits the ground and explodes in a shower of super adhesive gel-like chemical. Combat: Jetfire sets his defense level to Fearless. Combat: Jetfire strikes Demon Polar Bear with the Jetfire-forged Sticky Bomb attack! Combat: That attack has slowed Demon Polar Bear, making it less efficient. Combat: That attack has locked on Demon Polar Bear. (LOCKON) Mechanical Wyvern watches the Demon Bear go after the Autobots. He chuckles in a squawking way, not lifting a wing to help them. After all, there may be a truce, but that doesn't mean he has to stop a Polar Bear from going apeslag on his foes. Kup was busy trying to help Blurr out of being buried, which means that he's an easy target for that demon polar bear to maul. It tears open his head and rakes into his musket. Energon drips down across his optics and smears when he moves his hand up to wipe it away. Kup murmurs softly, "Blast." Putting the broken gun away, Kup does what Kups do and charges the bear, shouting, "Stay back, Blurr!" Combat: Kup strikes Demon Polar Bear with his Shoulder Check attack! -3 Panavia Tornado GR1 Fighter Jet seems to take Cutthroat's ead this time. The BEar seems to be doing an able job agsint them, and him as well after that llast hit. He pulls away from the battle to try and avaoud another hit like that. Combat: Panavia Tornado GR1 Fighter Jet takes extra time to steady himself. Pass Impactor has arrived. "Stay back? Stay back? But I'm an Autobot! I want to help!" Blurr protests as the other Autobots treat him like some sort of... of... weakling! Well, okay, he is weak, but he's not helpless! He fires at the bear from afar even as Kup and Jetfire fire continue to harry it up close. It growls, stuck to the ground with the sticky bomb and slammed by Kup, and it strikes at the nearest Autobots, but unable to frenzy, it can no longer go after the other intruders. Meanwhile, the floor beneath the Autobots starts to crack... Combat: Blurr strikes Kup with Demon Polar Bear's Polar Claw Area attack! Combat: Blurr (Blurr) used "Polar Claw": A Level 3 AREA-MELEE attack. Combat: You took 10 damage. Combat: Blurr's attack has slightly corrupted your Accuracy systems! Combat: Blurr's attack damages your armor. Combat: Blurr misses Jetfire with Demon Polar Bear's Polar Claw Area attack! Combat: Blurr strikes Demon Polar Bear with his Laser attack! More energon seeps down Kup's optics as the bear swats him in the head again, his whole helmet module coming away. "Gear-crunching cold," Kup swears. "Energon won't wipe off right." He looks down a moment. "Oh, jetslag! One way or the other, looks like we'e going down!" Kup tries to boot the polar bear away, so that they might be able to cling to the sides of the room. Combat: Kup misses Demon Polar Bear with his Get Ya Varmint! attack! -2 Jetfire isn't the best of melee combatants, but he takes advantage of the bear being the same size as he is, grabbing onto its offending forearm as it tries to claw him again and shoving it back towards the goo again. Looks like the bonding gel is doing its job of slowing it down! "Try and get clear!", he shouts to the other two, more worried about Blurr and Kup who can't fly in one mode like he can. Then pulls his own rifle back out, shoves it towards the beast's gut and pulls the trigger. Combat: Jetfire strikes Demon Polar Bear with his Gut Shot attack! Mechanical Wyvern is quite entertained by the fits the bear is giving the Autobots. "Go, bear! Rip Autobots! Make them no fast anymore!" he squawks harshly, encouraging the beast so that he can live vicariously through its attacks. Late? Nah, Wreckers are never late. They show up exactly when they plan to, which just usually falls behind everyone else's expectations. The Wrecker leader bores through the packed in snow and ice, kicking up a fine translucent white mist into the air. <> Tunneling through and expecting some sort of flooring to soften his landing, Impactor is taken aback as there's -nothing- underneath him. And he could of swore his sensors indicated a floor a couple of astroseconds ago! Not the most agile of thought, Impactor kicks into action without hesitation. Transforming back into robot mode, 'Kiloton' fires off his hook-shot and swings through the room.. managing to snag Kup from falling into the icy abyss. "Looks like I'm right on time!" Handy thing that Wreckers are never late, because Impactor sure gives people hell when other people are late! Kup is grabbed by Impactor with an, "Ooof, could you cut that any more fine!? And... oh, frak! Jetfire, get Blurr!" The floor continues to collapse, and though Blurr tries to run free of it, once more he finds that he's just... not... fast... enough, and the former-Speedster goes toppling into the caverns below, screaming all the while! Blurr's not the only one to fall out of sight, as the demon bear does as well! "Oh slag it all to hell!" Jetfire curses outloud this time. As the floor gives away he realizes he can't grab Blurr and make it to the edge both. So he hits his dash jets to try and grab the not-so-quick speedster as they both start to fall. "Grab on Blurr!" And then fires up his maneuvering thrusters. Shame he can't actually fly, but he can use his space-walk boosters in an attempt to deaccelerate their fall! Combat: Jetfire misses Blurr with his Trying to make the landing softer (Grab) attack! Mechanical Wyvern would be eating enerpopcorn, if he had any. This truly is an entertaining sight. He's only sorry Hun-grrr isn't here to spectate with him. "I can still drop ya if you prefer?" Impactor offers Kup, brandishing his grumpy face. Vision rotates around to note where exactly Jetfire and Blurr were, the Wrecker leader pushes off the Ice Cave's wall and swings out in an attempt to snatch the former speedster before he plummets with the Demon Bear. And Jetfire's heroic theatrics foil the Wrecker's plan, as both him and Kup smack back up against the icy wall. *THWACK* Impactor's hold on Kup loosens, but he still grips him in one arm while the other is severely strained from the weight. "Sure are hefty fer an wily ole buzzard!" Fortress Maximus has arrived. Blurr crashes to the ground with a thud and an 'omph!' He still fares better than the organic bear, who lands in a red liquid mess, at least. Blurr groans and pushes some ice and snow off of him before looking around in the new caverns, the lower level one. His optics widen, and he shouts, "Hey, Jetfire, there's some kind of silver stuff laced in the walls down here maybe you should check it out and see if it's what you're looking fo- oh no!" he interrupts himself as his shouting brings down more ice and snow! Kup gets smacked into a wall by Impactor. That's probably not what Impactor was going for, but that's what happened. He's missing his helmet; all the circuitry and mechanisms are exposed to the frigid air, and his optics are smeared with half-frozen energon. He grunts, "Die cast construction. It's a lost art. But speakin' of lost.." He looks down at Blurr, who is noisy enough to be not dead. It'll have to do. Jetfire lands with a crunch on the snow and ice, but at least on his feet as the thrusters die. Darn it, he -tried- at least. "Just hold still a moment Blurr," he murmurs as he lowers his voice to not cause any more falling ice as he walks over to help Blurr back up. "Not so loud. Did the fall damage you any?" He sees the 'silver stuff', but first and foremost on his mind is the other Autobots' well-being. Then he'll get into being all sciency again. At least that damn bear is dead. ICE and SNOW comes barreling down the wall of the cavern, one block in particular dislodging the Wrecker's harpoon. "WHOOOOOOOOOA!" And so the pair plummets the rest of the way down, to the cavern floor. Only shortened by Impactor's line and softened by whomever is unlucky enough to get caught underneath. Mechanical Wyvern notices the bear is no longer living, and starts tearing into it to release his frustrations. Darkwing has disconnected. Blurr is dug out by Jetfire. He gives the scientist a sheepish grin. "A bit banged and dented, sir, but it's not bad." His head snaps back and his optics widen. "Look out!" And, slow though he may be, he manages to dodge out of the way of any falling Impactors or Kups! Jetfire darts out of the way as the two oldtimers come crashing down as well. And manages a bit of a rueful smirk. "Finally got tired of hanging around, huh?" Kup happens to land on his head. His helmet-less head. Because ice and snow are just great for exposed microchips. This means that Impactor's probably going to be landing on his back in, oh, half a second. So Kup just starts cussing now to get it over with, "Piston-licking bolt-munchers!" *SKRRRUNCH*! Impactor plummets down and eventually on top of Kup, as snow and ice drops in random patterns all around them. Aft down, the Wrecker's arms are splayed out to the sides and head thrown back from the drop. Slowly stirring, Impactor sits forward and nods to Jetfire. "Real funny. Where's Kup?" "Try looking down," Jetfire replies, before walking over to investigate the silver colored presence that Blurr pointed out briefly, crouching down a bit to get a closer look as a monocal-like lense slides over one optic when he deploys one of his scanners. Blurr probably /should/ help Impactor and Kup up, but now that he's up and about, he's far too distracted by the silver lines in the cavern side, and he darts to one to investigate. Though slower than normal, he's still fairly fast. He leans over Jetfire and tilts his head. "Is that it? Please be it! It being it would be great!" Battle Station transforms into his Battleship mode. Thanks, Blurr. Kup will just stay over here, with his head buried in the snow and Impactor's heavy aft on his back. That's fine. Kup groans and tries to get up on all fours, an act that will likely dislodge Impactor, at the very least. Blurr is totally considerate like that. "Down?" Impactor replies as he's lifted up from beneath, propped forward to stumble on his own two feet. Clearing some icy debris from his shoulder, the Wrecker glances back at the snow buried Kup. "Hey, old mech.. whatchya doin' lazin' round like that? Blurr here needs our help, this ain't no time fer ah nap!" Kup snarls back, "I ain't napping - you landed on me, you idiot!" He shakes himself out, particularly his head, and then he stomps on over to where Blurr has found a seam of something. He looks to Jetfire and asks, "Well?" The scanning beam sweeps over the veins of minerals a few times, and then dimisses itself. "I'm reading large deposites of unobtainium, nonsensium and even a bit of plotolium. Any one of such rare material could of possibly worked, though unobtainium is by far the most stable superconductor. The other's are nice for more elaborate applications in hardware in a pinch though." And now you know how this sort of super science -really- works... if you can even understand those words. The monocle lens remains, shifting to a zoom in as Jetfire deploys a couple of his precision exavation tools from his old days as an explorer and works on extracting a large enough sample from one of the veins. "Regardless, yes, this is exactly what I need to construct a capable super conductor to capacitate a new power chip." Mechanical Wyvern finishes pecking at the bear and follows after Blurr. He tries to get ahead of the formerly speedy one. "No! You stay slow!" he says. Blurr wasn't actualy going anywhere, so nonsensium indeed. Blurr grins brightly and hops from one foot to the other. Antsy, yes, but it's a poor shadow of his normal antsyness. "It's it! It's it, it's it, it's it!" he exclaims in celebration. "Is there something I can do? I want to help! Maybe I can do something?" Then he frowns and looks around, confused. "Did you hear something?" "Hey, is that how ya always treat yer rescuers? Damn, fuzzy old nerf herder." Impactor swears, catching up to Jetfire and suddenly realizing the mineral veins branching across the new tunnel's wall. "In a pinch? Heck Jetfire.." the Wrecker trails, brushing his hand up against the wall. "Just one small deposit of Nonsensium alone, it's close ta impossible ta make sense of tha possibilities!" "That's why it was named 'nonsensium'," Jetfire deadpans. But it's just because he's so focused on his work. Then replies to Blurr, "Make sure we don't get jumped by any more hostiles? This is a very delicate process to remove without bringing the entire cave down on us. Ice isn't as stable as rock." Kup tells Impactor, "Eh, can it." Then, he observes, "I guess you did upgrade that sense of humour, after all." Then, he takes up a watch post, turning around to cover Jetfire's back. "Watch? Sure, I can stand watch," Blurr answers, turning away from Jetfire. He once more shuffles from one foot to the other, and even draws his electro-laser from subspace. A sort of sizzling noise can be heard in the far distance for a moment, but it's very faint, and Blurr doesn't seem to notice it. "Yeah yeah." Impactor replies to Kup, waving a dismissive hand. More alike than either of them would like to admit to, the old codgers actually make a fairly effective team.. when they're not at each other's throats. Walking briskly over towards Blurr, the Wrecker clasps him on the back. "Don't worry lad, I'll lend ah hand. Only got one, ya know?" Impactor jokes, optics squinting down and vision towards the long tunnels before them. "You hear that?" Blurr jumps as Impactor clasps a hand on his back. He peers up at Impactor. "If you only have one, should you lend it out?" Wait, is he joking? There's another sizzling noise, but then it goes silent. Kup raises a finger, and he asks, "Okay, you joker, did anyone hear that? Kind of a... sizzling?" "Yeah, I heard it to.. thought it was tha crash playin' with tha audios fer a moment though." Impactor replies to Kup, peering down the distance. "Only the sound of my tools." Which Jetfire retracts, and reachs into the openings in the ice he's made to pull the freed chunk of rare sci-fi metals out of what once encased it. Rather large sized portion of it, considering the size of his hands. "There, this should be enough to fix Blurr, and have a little left over for emergencies. But we really need to consider mining more of this later." Blurr rubs the back of his head. "That might be a good idea, but... this planet is kind of creepy, we wouldn't have to stay long, would w-" and then the sizzling noise gets louder, before, bursting out through the ice-rock walls of the cavern is a giant ice worm, looking like something out of a nightmare! Ice Worm =[ TACS Object: Ice Worm ] A giant writhing, putrid, yellowish white creature, the color of snow after the dog has had its way with it. This monstrous worm swims through solid ice, burning its way with a noxious chemical process that makes touching it a risky proposition. There's no visible head or face on its segmented body, but it moves unerringly towards intruders. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This is a weapon object, see '+help WeaponObject' for more info ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Usage Restriction: OWNER (Blurr) Can You Use It?: No [ TACS Weapon Object #10098 ] Jetfire turns around from the wall, only to come face to face with the new monster that's emerged to harass them. "... I think now would be a good time for an expedient departure from the premesis with our aquisition." Tips his head back even farther to look up the hole they fell through. "I fear the tunnels would be too narrow for me to fly us out though!" Impactor whips around to stare headlong at a ginormous ICE WORM! "Ever seen anythin' like that Kup?" the Wrecker laughs nervously, turning tail and making a break for the far wall. Transforming into altmode, the Drill Tank bores into the ice with abandon. <> Folding down upon himself, Impactor transforms back into his Drill Tank mode. Kup replies, "Yeah, but they were smaller, though - if you held 'em in your hand, they'd melt! That's... not something that would fit in my hand." He doesn't look afraid, but he does edge away carefully. When Impactor transforms, Kup rolls for it! Kup turns into a pickup truck, nothing fancy, but he can tell you, there was a day when transforming into anything at all was something special. Blurr transforms, ready to follow the others as soon as there's a hole for him to go through. Once more, it's kind of handy to not have wheels, so the condition of the tunnel doesn't mean that much to him. He follows along behind Kup and the Wrecker Leader, while the worm slithers after the Autobots! "Oh sure, give me the -hard- job," Jetfire retorts over his shoulder in a mock-jesting tone. "Just because I'm the biggest one for it to have to get around." Not that he doesn't stand his ground anyways, but you've got to have the heroic commentary. Once the others are on their way into Impactor's tunnel he backs towards it himself, activating both of his missile launchers. Then lowers one to angle at the floor just in front of the worm, and the other up at the ceiling before he fires both proton missiles. One to make a depression in the floor to trap the thing first, -then- collapse the ice above on top of it. Otherwise it'll probably just burrow its way after them. The ice worm surges forward, after the Autobots, but, being a fairly dim creature, it easily falls for Jetfire's trap and is stuck! By the sizzling sound, this won't last long... time to run! Steel cables reel out from the rear end of the Drill Tank, <> Impactor emits to Kup, Blurr, and Jetfire. The twin drills maintain a steady pace through the ice, and eventually up to the surface! Blurr transforms back to robot mode and grabs hold of the cable, though it feels odd to be pulled along. When they surface, he pulls himself the rest of the way out of the tunnel and wipes his forehead. "Whew, that was close, but... we probably should keep movint!" At least... once their 'ride' in the form of Jetfire gets there! Jetfire grabs one of the cables for the pull up. "That's why I hit the floor too. Even if it can burrow through ice naturally, it'll take it longer to climb out of a hole -and- try to follow us if it can't take a direct route." Once they're out on the surface, he hands the large lump of minerals to Blurr. Who'll likely need both hands to carry it, seeing as Jetfire held it in one palm easily. "Hold onto this. Not that it's fragile, but I'd rather it not rattle around in my cargo hold all the same." And then transforms so the Autobots can load up and they can get off of this ice rock! Cybertruck transforms and 'skiis' behind Impactor with a loud, "Yahoo!" ...yeah, this is where Hot Rod got it, all right. The pickup truck rises up into the old veteran Autobot, Kup. Jetfire transforms into his Veritech Spacefighter mode. Blurr accepts the chunk of metals with a grin. "I'll take good care of this, you can bet on that! This is..." He beams brightly. "I can be /me/ again!" He enters into the space ship, and gets ready for the ride home. The cables rescend into the Drill Tank as Impactor transforms, thudding to the ground out of exhaustion. Towing the slower Blurr, sturdy framed Kup, and the giant walking lawsuit is tough work! "We through with tha pitter patter, floor cave-in or not.. I'd rather be off this dirtball when that thing does resurface!" the Wrecker gruffs, boarding the space ship. The Drill Tank shifts and transforms, revealing the Wrecker leader Impactor! And what's Cutthroat been doing this whole time? Well, since there's a truce, he has decided to peck at the dead polar bear some more until it's nothing but a bloody smear on the ice. Veritech Spacefighter closes up once everyone is aboard, and blasts off. "I couldn't agree with you more, Impactor." Mechanical Wyvern only now just notices that the Autobots are leaving! He transforms, uttering a harsh cry, and shakes his fist! The bird-monster rears up, his beak folds down into his chest, the wings fold, arms and legs pop out, and Cutthroat appears in robot mode. Blurr has disconnected. Impactor vanishes out of reality. Impactor has left. Jetfire goes home. Jetfire has left. Cutthroat vanishes out of reality. Cutthroat has left. Fortress Maximus vanishes out of reality. Fortress Maximus has left.